What Is a Verb?

A verb is a part of speech that expresses action or state of being, or connects a subject to a complement. Verbs indicate whether the subject performs an action (active voice) or receives the action (passive voice). Verbs can be transitive (requires a direct object) or intransitive (does not require an object). The tenses of verbs are formed according to person, number, and tense.
Verbs can have moods, which indicate the attitude of the speaker. Some writers have problems with verbs as the result of an incorrect tense or irregular verbs. Verbs play a key role in constructing sentences.

Action Verbs and Linking Verbs

An action verb animates a sentence, either physically ( swim, jump, drop, whistle) or mentally ( think, dream, believe, suppose, love). Verbs make sentences move; sometimes dramatically, sometimes quietly.
Some verbs don't express action but help complete statements about the subject by describing or identifying it. These verbs are called linking verbs.
The sentences don't tell you what Diane, Clement, Maria, and the music did but rather what they are. Linking verbs “link” their subjects to a classification, state of being, or quality. In the sentences above, happy, feverish, doctor, and good are called complements of the linking verbs. Table 1 lists some common linking verbs.
Some of these verbs can be both linking and action verbs.
A quick way to tell whether a verb is functioning as a linking verb is to see if you can replace it with a form of the verb to be and still have a logical sentence. For example, test the two sentences above by replacing smelled with was.
Linking verbs operate differently than action verbs. First, while action verbs are modified by adverbs, linking verbs are often followed by adjectives.
Also, a pronoun following the linking verb to be should be in the subjective case rather than the objective case.
It was she.

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

A transitive verb, used with a direct object, transmits action to an object and may also have an indirect object, which indicates to or for whom the action is done. In contrast, an intransitive verb never takes an object.

Transitive verbs

A transitive verb takes a direct object; that is, the verb transmits action to an object.
In these sentences, something is being done to an object.
A transitive verb can also have an indirect object that precedes the direct object. The indirect object tells to or for whom the action is done, although the words to and for are not used. In the following examples, notice the difference between the direct and indirect objects.
The direct object ( letter) receives the action ( sent). The indirect object ( Robert) is the person to whom the letter is sent.
The direct object ( lecture) receives the action ( gave). The indirect object ( class) is the group to whom the lecture is given.
Learn to recognize words that are direct and indirect objects of verbs. When these words are pronouns, they must be in the objective case.

Intransitive verbs

An intransitive verb does not take an object.
In these sentences, nothing receives the action of the verbs sleep and complain.
Many verbs can be either transitive or intransitive.
She sings every day. (no object = intransitive)
She sings rock 'n' roll tunes. ( rock 'n' roll tunes receives the action of sings = transitive)

Verbals: Gerunds, Infinitives, and Participles

The three verbals— gerunds, infinitives, and participles—are formed from verbs, but are never used alone as action words in sentences. Instead, verbals function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. These verbals are important in phrases.
The gerund ends in -ing and functions as a noun.
The infinitive is the base form of a verb with to. Usually it functions as a noun, although it can also function as an adjective or adverb.
A participle is a verb that ends in -ing (present participle) or -ed, -d, -t, -en, -n (past participle). Participles may function as adjectives, describing or modifying nouns.
But participles have another function. When used with helping verbs such as to be and to have, they are action verbs and form several verb tenses.
She is thinking of the children.
The conference room had been cleaned before they arrived.

Forming Verb Tenses

To write correctly, you need to know both how to form verb tenses and when to use them. Verb tenses are formed according to person, number, and tense. They are the key to coherent sentence structure.

Tense, person, and number

Person refers to the subject or object of the verb. Number identifies whether a verb is singular or plural. A few terms will help you to understand how verb tenses are formed.

• Tense: Refers to the time the action (or state of being) is taking place
• Number: Refers to whether a verb is singular ( he goes) or plural ( they go)
  
  • In the sentence The horse runs in the pasture, the verb runs is the third-person singular of the present tense of the verb run.
• Person: Refers to the person (or thing) that is a subject or object
  
  • First person: I go (singular). We go (plural). She spoke to me (singular). She spoke to us (singular subject).
  • Second person: Y ou go (singular). You ( all) go (plural). She spoke to you, you ( all) (singular subject).
  • Third person: He, She, It goes (singular). They go (plural). She spoke to him, her, it (singular) . She spoke to them (singular subject, plural object).

Common verb tenses

Here are the most commonly used tenses in English:

• Present: Action going on now
• Past: Action that is completed
• Future: Action that has yet to take place
• Present perfect: Action in past time in relation to present time
• Past perfect: Action in past time in relation to another past time
• Future perfect: Action in a future time in relation to another time farther in the future

Definitions of the perfect tenses are difficult to understand without examples. Tables 1 and 6 show the regular verb to walk and the irregular verb to be in each of the tenses for first-, second-, and third-person subjects. Regular verbs, like to walk, form the past tense and the perfect tenses by adding -d or -ed to the present tense. But many English verbs are irregular, forming their past tenses in various ways.
In the future tense, traditionally shall has been used for will in the first-person singular and plural: I shall walk, we shall walk. In modern usage, will has replaced shall almost entirely. Although either is correct, shall can sound overly formal.

Using the Tenses

Tense indicates when the action or state of being occurs. Forming tenses can be simple or complicated.

Present, past, and future

The present, past, and future tenses are part of our everyday language, and as writers we should be able to use these forms with ease. The present tense indicates an action occurring now.
Sometimes, the present tense is used to indicate future action.
The past tense indicates action completed in the past.
The future tense is used for action that will occur at a future time.

Present perfect

The present perfect tense, formed with has or have and the past participle of the verb, indicates an action that occurred in the past and has continued into the present.
This contrasts with the simple past tense, which suggests an action that both began and ended in the past.
The present perfect tense can also be used when you want to emphasize an action that occurred in the past but at no definite time.

Past perfect

The past perfect tense, formed with had and the past participle of the verb, indicates an action completed in the past before another action completed in the past.
Had called is a past action that was completed before checking the phone number, another completed past action.
In the following example, his being sober for a year preceded the accident: past before past.

Future perfect

The future perfect tense, formed with will have and the past participle of the verb, is used for an action that will be completed in the future before another future action.
Texting more than a hundred times will take place before next week. In the following example, his achieving sobriety for a year will precede the future arrival of his baby daughter.
He will have been sober for a year by the time his new daughter is born.

Moods of the Verb

Verb moods are classifications that indicate the attitude of the speaker. Verbs have three moods—indicative, imperative, and subjunctive.

Indicative and imperative moods

The indicative and the imperative moods are fairly common. You use the indicative mood in most statements and questions.
You use the imperative in requests and commands. Imperative statements have an understood subject of “you” and therefore take second-person verbs.

Subjunctive mood

Verb tenses in the subjunctive mood are used in special kinds of statements. The most common use of the subjunctive mood is in contrary-to-fact or hypothetical statements. In your own writing, you must decide which statements should be in the subjunctive mood. If something is likely to happen, use the indicative. If something is hypothetical, or contrary to fact, use the subjunctive.

• Present tense subjunctive
  
  • If I were king, you would be queen. (In the subjunctive, were is used for all persons.)
  • If he worked, he could earn high wages.
• Past tense subjunctive
  
  • If I had been king, you would have been queen.
  • If he had worked, he could have earned high wages.

These contrary-to-fact statements have two clauses: the if clause and the consequences clause. The forms of the verbs in these clauses are different from those of verbs used in the indicative mood.
In the if clause, use the subjunctive. Table 1 shows how it is formed. Note that the subjunctive present tense is the same as the indicative past tense.
Note in Table 2 how the subjunctive past tense is the same as the indicative past perfect tense.
In the consequences clause, use the conditional (Tables 3 and 4), which is formed with could or would.
Not all clauses beginning with if are contrary to fact. When an if clause indicates something that is likely to happen, use the indicative, not the subjunctive.

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By Muhammad Atif Saeed on 01:25. Filed under Communication . Follow any responses to the RSS 2.0. Leave a response